What does it mean to reimagine education and prepare California’s working-age adults for a workforce that’s rapidly changing? What has Calbright College learned in delivering the durable, in-demand skills students need to thrive?
“Calbright’s programs emphasize rigorous mastery of skills to ensure that a student demonstrates what they can do, beyond sitting in a classroom, and can communicate it in a language that employers understand,” said Calbright President and CEO Ajita Talwalker Menon. “Because we are fully online, flexibly-paced, and have integrated support into the digital student experience, students can invest their time and energy into their learning immediately, and in a way that fits into their busy lives and schedules.”
Menon shared lessons learned and how education institutions can come together to innovate and improve pathways for students on the final day of the 2025 Noncredit Summit. The Noncredit Summit is presented by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office in partnership with Mt. San Antonio College, San Diego College of Continuing Education, the Association of Community and Continuing Education.
The Noncredit Summit brings together leaders and practitioners from across the state to reimagine, strengthen, and scale high-impact noncredit programs.
“Students want agency and respect in their education and career training – and that’s a goal I’m proud to say we are delivering on,” Menon added.
Menon was invited to share insights with the audience of continuing education leaders, college deans, faculty, and community education practitioners who are all grappling with improving student success and strengthening communities across the state amid rapidly changing technology and economic environments.
Menon noted the barriers students face and that colleges are seeking to reduce are well documented. Over 7 million Californians, aged 25-54, don’t have a college credential. While there is increasingly a recognition among employers that degrees are not the only indicator of the ability to do a job, education and workforce training are in demand among working-age adults seeking to reskill, upskill, or pivot careers.
“That’s a reality that will compound as we see more disruptions in the labor market associated with technological transformations that are changing the way businesses work, and accelerating the need for new skills in the workforce,” Menon said.
As education leaders look for innovation and alignment across institutions to better support students, Calbright’s success in creating a new kind of college, open to all Californians, is increasingly seen statewide and nationwide as an example of successful innovation for career-focused adults.
“Ultimately what we are preparing our students for is not just the ability for them to be well positioned in the current workforce, but for success as their lives and the labor market continue to fluctuate around them,” Menon said to open the event. “The only way for us to collectively reach and impact more learners is to reimagine education.”
Calbright is California’s only statewide, online, community college, and its programs are focused on the needs of students seeking education and skills-building pathways that fit their work and personal lives. It accepts all adult Californians with a high school diploma or equivalent who apply, and is free. It is flexibly paced, allowing students to take classes on their own schedules and to move as quickly or as slowly as they need to without penalty. Instead of traditional degrees, it offers certifications for industry-valued skills that California companies are actively hiring for.
While students move at their own pace, most of Calbright’s programs can be completed in a matter of months, not years, and Calbright provides career development and job search support to help students achieve their career goals.
One reason Calbright succeeds, Menon said, is that it listens to its students and is nimble, quickly adjusting to meet their skill-building, education, and support needs.
“We listen and learn from students,” she said. “They are the best evidence to show the growing demand for new and innovative approaches to education delivery that is digitally enabled.”
Another reason is Calbright’s emphasis on work-based learning. “Calbright has prioritized not just online, but hands-on learning.” she said.
A recent study by the Center for Higher Education Policy and Practice at Southern New Hampshire University and an opinion piece by Riipen founder Dana Stephenson both specifically cite Calbright for its leading innovations, and successes, in integrating work-based learning into the online higher education experience for adults.
The third foundation of Calbright’s success is constant innovation, in both technology and human systems.
“We can’t talk about reimagining education without talking about the integration and leveraging of AI,” Menon said. “AI is perhaps the biggest accelerator we have for student and adult learner success, and for Calbright this means building systems around a ‘human in the loop’ model.”
Technology can work wonders, and must be leveraged to educate at scale, but the human connection is often vital – and irreplaceable – in education, Menon said. That means finding ways to make online learning personal.
“We know what works,” she said. “Staying human-centered, focusing on competency-based education; integrating career development like work-based learning from day one; and strategically leveraging a human-in-the-loop approach to AI and technology adoption to evolve and scale education and workforce training in the ways that are needed.”
The challenges facing innovative education are significant, but as Menon and Calbright have shown they are solvable.
